Love in fabrics

Love in textiles How have love stories been transmitted through textiles?

Through touch, the function of protecting and caring, in their meaning or in their symbols, textiles have transmitted the love of the people who made them to others.

Since the beginning of mankind, textiles have always been associated with an act of love in one way or another.

Touch and the need to wrap up and cover the skin were one of the first causes of its appearance. Covering oneself with a blanket or cloak was the beginning of clothing and apparel, but it also implicitly responded to love for others and oneself through care. implicitly responded to love of others and of oneself through care.

Ceremonial pieces became important to mark the most sublime moments of the human being. The first woven skirts symbolized the importance of the female hips and their function of life.

This was fundamental for the species and other elements such as the capes that adorned with good omens and protected important moments such as marriage or death.

Throughout history, human beings have symbolized love in the act of weaving in many ways in the form of different virtues. Mythological beings like the Fates wove life and death, while faithful lovers like Penelope wove and unweaved while waiting for their beloved. And in all cultures weaving is associated with the act of creating beautiful things.

This need to capture in fabrics teachings, good omens or words of love for a loved one occurs in all cultures and countries.

It has been established that weaving and writing merge at many points in time. Both share a common etymology, THE text comes from the Latin word "textum" which literally means woven.

And the fact is that in the weaving as in the texts, women generally embodied their entire creative universe and knowledge that they transmitted to other generations.

In the exhibition " El lenguaje de las Telas " (Ministry of Culture, Government of Spain, Madrid, 2018) we could see different textiles that were printed with geometric motifs.

They signified different concepts of life according to the way they were printed, forming a true language with which mothers taught their children life lessons. These textiles also represented the community, its culture and values.

Mythology, teachings and also love is a fundamental part of our lives. It was captured in textiles as if it were a wish to be fulfilled. Lovers used textiles as a symbol of invisible union between them.

Thus the Chinese legend, where the Qixi Festival is celebrated on the day of lovers, is about impossible love and in which weaving plays an important role as in many legends.

The story goes that Niu Lang, a kind-hearted shepherd, fell in love with Zjhi Un, a fairy who wove beautiful clothes. They lived separated by a river and saw each other once a year. The goddess of the Heavens discovered their love and drove the lovers away forever by sending them to heaven in the form of the stars Vega and Altair eternally separated by the Milky Way, although they meet again once a year.

According to legend, the girl was condemned to weave clouds in the firmament.

Nowadays, lovers give each other various gifts: some of them curious and different, such as fireflies, but in her memory there are also sewing and lace making contests in imitation of the fairy's fabrics.

Since ancient times, ideas, desires and even stories have been captured in fabrics.

The people who made them or even embellished them, explained many personal or even vital motivations that were reflected in motifs and embroideries.

Thus, a whole imaginary of beings, animals such as doves, the tree of life, the anthropomorphic couple, became motifs found in dresses, traditional clothing, but especially blankets and quilts.

The latter were intended to cover the marriage, and to show the virtues of the weaver who generally made them for her own trousseau, so it is common to see the tree of life, as a desire for happiness in the encounter with her partner, doves, turtledoves, hearts, or even anthropomorphic couples.

I'm sure we've all had our grandmothers' sheets with the initials of the marriage.

Lovers' messages were embroidered on traditional textile clothing or handkerchiefs.

Something similar happened in Spain and Portugal, when messages for lovers were embroidered on traditional textile clothing or the handkerchiefs that were given as gifts contained messages of love.

In Segovia men used to wear a belt on which his lover embroidered beautiful words of love and that he proudly wore as a commitment on holidays. On it were embroidered in silk, phrases of love or protection that the man showed on the front of his jacket. The letters were colorful and colorful.

In Galicia there are "panos de enamorar", printed cotton handkerchiefs that the groom wore under his hat at parties. The fabrics and the acceptance of the use of these garments meant a tacit and at the same time public commitment between these two lovers.

There are direct examples of love messages, which were similar to letters, some girls in love gave them to their lovers, these are the "lenços de namorar" or cloths to fall in love, which would be their literal translation. True works of art of traditional Portuguese embroidery that became poetry between lovers. A declaration of eternal love.

Actually these handkerchiefs were, according to the tradition of Minho, handkerchiefs embroidered from the heartbeat of the young woman who put in them all her feelings and in which their rich coloring was filled with hand-embroidered hearts, birds and flowers.

This handkerchief reached the hands of her chosen loved one who, depending on whether she wore it in public or not, the relationship between the two was initiated.

All these handkerchiefs told stories of passionate love, youthful, full of color embroidered on linen being today a symbol of Portuguese culture, where love is transferred to a friend or other loved one. You have images on the website namorarportugal.pt

And so on we could give examples of luxury gifts symbolized in textiles, accessories, scarves, dresses of luxurious fabrics throughout the history of mankind where the fabric represented more than just a garment.

Man has tended to manifest his thoughts and desires in his fabrics and clothing.

Man has always tended to express his thoughts and desires in his fabrics and clothing, either through symbols and images or even phrases and letters.

Nowadays this has spread and who does not have a T-shirt with an inspirational phrase or a heart or a print with thousands of them. As a sample of all the manifestations of love that can be made, the love for oneself that Victor & Rolf has captured in its latest spring-summer 2019 Haute Couture collection.

Our collection "los fueguitos", with which we value the love for different people and the diversity of each one. If you want to read more I leave you the link: https://rirandco.com/mantas-artesanales-fueguitos/

Textiles have always witnessed the multiple manifestations of love.